Dear All,
We are moving through Lent at a pace. I hope it is being a time of reflective peace for each of you. I find it difficult to keep the Lent focus with life presenting so much but hopefully we can re-focus again & again over these weeks.
Tomorrow our Gospel reading is the story of the woman at the well & her encounter with Jesus. In that story here are so many different themes we could follow. The one we have chosen is water – even within that you could go off on a myriad of different paths. I hope the bits we have chosen will lead you to reflect in the best way for you – ie don’t be bound by a particular aspect. We’ve put in something more specifically ‘Lenten’ as well.
Our blessing today is John Glynn’s ‘Song of Blessing’ – enjoy it – maybe forward it to anyone you know who is in particular need of blessing at the moment.
In our parish the Justice & Peace group usually organise a series of ‘Lent Lunches’ – different people undertake to host them. We are hosting one at 43 Anderson Av on Wed 15 March from 12 noon. We would welcome any of you & family & friends. The lunches are basically soup, bread, cheese & the like – no charge but donations are encouraged! This year 50% of the donations are going to our sisters in the DRC. The other 50% is going to CAFOD projects.
With our love & prayer
Lenten Psalm of Longing
I thank you, O God,
for the warming of the winds
that brings a melting of the snow,
for daylight hours that daily grow longer
and richer in the aroma of hope.
Spring lingers beneath the horizon
as approaching echoes of Easter
ring in my ears.
I lift up my heart to you, Beloved,
in this season of Lent
that gently sweeps across
my sluggish and sleeping heart,
awakening me to a deeper love for you.
May the wind of the Spirit
that drove Jesus into the desert,
into the furnace of prayers,
also drive me with a passion
during this Lenten season
to enkindle the fire of my devotion
in the desert of Lenten love.
Birds above, on migratory wings,
signal me to an inner migration,
a message that draws me homeward bound
on Spirit’s wings to the heart of my Beloved.
May I earnestly use this Lenten season
to answer the inner urge to return.
Edward Hays
The Well
Daniel O’Leary
My well was dry until you came. It was blocked with buried debris. I was trying to fill it from the top.
Worn out with fruitless effort, I had to hand it over to you. Now, with the first springing into new life of the long-repressed water, much is happening.
While peace and satisfaction renew my life, I am also more aware of so much rubbish now floating on the new water – all the forces that have damaged and diminished my true self. In a flash I see my sins, the pain of those I’ve hurt, the lost opportunities, the foolish, unnecessary mistakes. I am learning not to panic at this unpleasant sight. ‘This is the hour’, writes Teilhard de Chardin, ‘of the specifically Christian operation when Christ, preserving in us all the treasures of our nature, empties us of our egocentrism and takes our heart…. But it is a salvific hour for the person enlightened by faith who experiences themselves being liberated from selfishness and dying by the force of a communion’.
There is no fear in me now as, after another hard day, I prepare to rest my head, without explanation or self-consciousness, on my Beloved. The constant, easy pushing of the sweet spring water is effortlessly doing the work in the landscape of my soul.
Clean Water
Bless the Almighty, O my soul.
O God, my creator, how mighty art thou !
Your power is like deep oceans.
Your blessings shower us daily like rain from the sky.
Your love is abundant like waves on the shore.
Thank you for water to cleanse & revive us.
Yet drought kills millions of your people;
will there come a time when there’s not enough water for all?
I see swimming pools as luxury; clean, fresh water wasted
in a land where many quench their thirst with dirty water.
Inspire those who govern to prioritise clean water:
spending a little to save many lives.
Open the showers of heaven to soften barren land.
Shower us with your love that softens hardened hearts.
Alix Brown
LIVING WATER
We are connected in creation
by water which gives us life.
Tides live in our blood,
and on distant shores
our kindred lift their heads
in the salt air
and scan the horizon
for a trace of our mark on the earth.
Let our marks be gentle.
Let us respect the gentleness of water
which moves between us
as a blessing from the hand of God.
Yvonne Morland